“Engagement” has been the bedrock of Canada’s policy toward China for more than four decades. Ottawa has continually attempted to assist China’s entry into the international system and to advance a commercial agenda. Yet engagement has also been conceived by many Canadians in larger terms as a moral enterprise intended to influence or change China's domestic social and political order. As China’s economic and diplomatic reach has expanded, policy makers in Ottawa have struggled to devise a compelling strategy that addresses the rise of global China and the mixture of anxiety and opportunity this has generated in Canadian minds.

Engaging China is a concise account of the evolution and current state of Canada’s policy toward China – its achievements, failings, and dilemmas. Written by Paul Evans, one of Canada’s foremost experts on contemporary Asian affairs, the volume inaugurates the UTP Insights series of books that take on the issues crucial to understanding our world and Canada’s place within it. Evans’s assessment of Canada’s China policy speaks to the idea of engagement, its intellectual history, and its contradictions and possibilities.

Clearly presented and cogently argued, Engaging China outlines the elements necessary for a comprehensive and strategic approach to China in light of its central role in the most important power shift in the global order since World War II.

PAUL EVANS teaches contemporary Asia-Pacific affairs at the University of British Columbia